Artist Research: Nikolai Tolstyh

Nikolai Tolstyh is an artist and photography from Russia. He uses natural resources that are around him, with amazing colours. He uses his craft knife skills to carve out detailed and intricate cut outs, which he then photographs.

The components of his work that I like are his attention to detail and positioning of the cut out. The background that is the same as the fill of the silhouette, in my opinion adds to the piece of work as a whole. The colours of the natural scapes, are crisp and bright, and are appealing to the eye, which makes a person look for more than just a second. The only thing that I don’t particularly like is that he has used other backgrounds for his cut outs other than nature, like string and a pattern of a cows skin that is my opinion other people may like it like that. I like them as a piece of work but it doesn’t follow the scheme of nature similar to the others.

The composition of Nikolai’s work is very simple and easy, but the way in which it is pulled off it makes it look very effective with minimal effort. The main part of his work that you look at first, is the white piece of paper and then the fill of the silhouette, after that the background and the piece as a whole. The different colours in each silhouette show the variation in the habitats of the animals.

The technology used in his work is a camera to shoot the piece and a computer to show what was produced once the image was taken. The effect that his work has on the viewer, from my opinion is that it shows the animals and the surroundings and that there is more to the animals than just them.

The relation between surroundings and Nikolai’s work is that he uses his surroundings as well as the animals’ surroundings and habitats. He uses brightly coloured nature to make the pieces more appealing and make people interested in what it is.